Scott Logush
Sports Editor
So how early is too early to fire Nathaniel Hackett? Hackett has officially found himself on my shortlist of hot seat candidates.
The Denver Broncos have simply looked like the worst-prepared team in football. They played their best game last week against the Las Vegas Raiders, despite losing, and it seemed like things were finally pointing up. Then last night happened, and all I have to say is wow, thank God I had practice and couldn’t watch much before overtime. Broncos fans are setting hilarious standards for fan bases. Counting down the play clock, pretty close to yelling “run” and “pass” as your parents did for your high school games, and now bolting for the exit when it became clear that overtime was upon us. The Broncos paid a huge price for Russell Wilson, in both draft capital and legitimate money with the extension he signed, but Hackett is more the root of the problem.
Hackett’s questionable in-game decisions earlier this season already caused for concern, but coming out flat against this depleted Colts team at home on Thursday Night Football? That’s unacceptable. To his credit, KJ Hamler was WIDE open on the final play of the game in overtime, and Wilson just missed him, but everything else is just, poor. Hackett deserves the rest of the season as the head coach, but he’s on thin ice already.
The current ownership group, and the richest ownership group by a country mile, are not tied at all to Hackett. They didn’t bring him in, and they can fire him without making much of a dent in their wallets. Hackett may be coaching for the rest of his career this season, and he better figure something out soon.
